Intro to Conflux
What is Conflux?
A web based automation tool that enables you to deploy and manage complex citrix environments from a single user interface. dinCloud is a leading Cloud Service Provider (CSP) with a global presence and also a strategic partner of Citrix, enabling it to deliver industry leading cloud services and solutions.
To provide secure and reliable citrix virtual desktops and applications, the deployment of a fully functional citrix environment is a pre requisite. However, this is a complex and tedious task that requires advanced IT and cloud engineering skills.
To reduce the complexity associated with deploying and managing citrix environments, dinCloud envisioned a ground breaking solution that would automate and simplify the whole process.
With this goal in mind, work started on the project and the highly capable team of dinCloud professionals created Conflux, which was implemented for dinCloud customers in the first phase.
With the release of conflux version 2.0 in May of 2020, dinCloud is pleased to extend the scope of conflux beyond dinCloud customers to citrix environments deployed on Microsoft Azure as well.
How Does Conflux Work?
The interface of Conflux is so intuitive and user friendly that someone with even a basic understanding of the cloud can deploy and manage a fully operational Citrix environment, which is a remarkable achievement of this tool.
Conflux primarily requires you to synchronize your cloud data. You can either deploy a new Citrix environment or register / integrate any existing deployments executed on dinManage or Microsoft Azure in conflux.
Once your deployment has been registered, the application effectively manages the workflows and requires minimal input from the user.
Why Conflux?
Given the complexity of configuring and managing a citrix environment, many organizations found themselves at a disadvantage and had to seek the services of highly skilled cloud professionals for the process or seek other solutions, just to avoid the hassle.
Conflux has entirely transformed this situation and using its highly intuitive user interface, someone with even a basic understanding of cloud environments can accomplish this task and manage it effectively.
Conflux not only simplifies the deployment of a new citrix environment, but also the ongoing tasks and processes related to managing an existing deployment. Conflux gives you full autonomy to provide limited access to users, user groups or all authenticated users to published apps and desktops.
Conflux Design
dinCloud has designed Conflux as a process-oriented solution in which each individual process of configuring a Citrix environment has been categorized into logical steps such as basic automation, advance automation and assignment. The conflux interface gives the end user a detailed flow of each process and its sub tasks. It also provides user aids in the form of text and videos. This enables the user to execute each step successfully and seamlessly.
The configuration of Citrix environments is inherently an error-prone process. Conflux minimizes human errors by auto-populating most of the information. The application’s workflows also follow the best practices recommended by industry veterans to remove the human driven errors for successful execution of citrix related tasks.
Citrix Processes
The application provides a holistic view of the Citrix processes by differentiating the workflows into three main categories:
- Basic Automation
- Advanced Automation
- Assignment
The basic automation workflow covers the installation of core Citrix components, configuration of both sites and stores, configuration of pinpoints, and StoreFront certificate installation.
Advanced automation workflow focuses on the configuration of NetScaler appliance, which includes hostname configuration, NetScaler license binding, NetScaler certificate installation and gateway configuration.
The assignment workflow covers the provision of published apps and desktops. It includes installation of virtual delivery agent, machine catalog creation and delivery group creation. It also manages the catalog and delivery groups.
Conflux provides both graphical and visual aids to educate users and also provides the user a proper rationale behind carrying out each step.
Future Outlook of Conflux
As Conflux was envisioned and designed by dinCloud, the initial beneficiaries of this landmark application were its esteemed customers, enabling them to integrate and manage citrix deployments on dinManage.
However, as dinCloud is an internationally emerging cloud service provider (CSP), we had a comprehensive plan to extend the scope of conflux to other leading CSPs of the globe, particularly Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Alibaba Cloud.
dinCloud has achieved a major milestone in this journey by extending the scope of conflux to citrix deployments on Microsoft Azure, in addition to dinCloud and dinManage infrastructure.
In the near future, dinCloud plans to extend the scope of Conflux even further to include other leading public cloud providers. Using conflux, cloud tenants of the world’s largest cloud providers will also be able to avail conflux to deploy and manage their citrix environments.
This is indeed a revolutionary step in the area of deploying and managing complex Citrix environments, which previously required high level IT and cloud computing skills.
The successful rollout of conflux and inclusion of Microsoft Azure in the fold further solidifies dinCloud’s position as a leading provider of innovative, secure and reliable cloud solutions.
